“Mistakes Can be Beautiful”: Creative Engagement in Arts Integration for Early Adolescent Learners

Abstract

In this study we explored students’ perspectives and experiences engaging in an arts integration learning model during middle school through a pluralistic lens of creative engagement in learning. The sample included N = 86 students in Grades 6–7 attending schools in fringe rural and urban locales from small and mid‐sized cities in the Pacific Northwest. We used a grounded theory approach to explore how creative engagement takes shape for the early adolescent learner. Our conceptual framework integrated intrapsychological (inward) processes with interpsychological (outward) exchange in the social environment of an arts integrated classroom. Schools involved in the study were part of a larger mixed‐methods research investigation and received intensive support for school‐wide arts integration development. We found that students valued opportunities in arts integration for (a) choice, (b) the expression of their unique interpretations, (c) taking risks and making mistakes, (d) recognizing and applying their Studio Habits of Mind, and (e) enhancement of motivation and engagement in learning. The need for competency, belonging, and autonomy were important conditions of the learning environment and the need for meaning‐making was paramount in the process of creative engagement.

Reflection in the creative process of early adolescents: The mediating roles of creative metacognition, self-efficacy, and self-concept.

“…Teachers were trained to integrate visual arts and embodied process drama techniques into math, English language arts, social studies, and science classroom learning. As past research on that program describes (Anderson, Haney, Pitts, Porter, & Bousselot, 2019; Anderson & Pitts, 2017; Anderson, Porter, & Adkins, 2019; Pitts, Anderson, & Haney, 2018), the arts integration specialists focused more on making the creative process visible for students through reflective practices than on the completion of artistic products that integrated learning in the paired academic domain. Most creative products included a reflective artist statement where students made their intentions explicit and also identified areas of personal growth.…”

“…The cognitive factors of creative potential at Time 1 included: (a) the generation of original and uncommon ideas in figural and verbal divergent thinking, which should relate to stronger creative production and CSBs (Karwowski & Beghetto, 2019); (b) students’ self-reported general creative ideational fluency for literary ideas, which should relate to creative production of a mythological creature and CSBs (Anderson et al, 2017); and (c) students experience of concentration and enjoyment in learning (e.g., flow state), which should relate to ease in creative production (Csikszentmihalyi & Rathunde, 1993). The environmental factors of perceived support for creativity in school (Anderson et al, 2019) and arts integrated learning should support CSBs and creative production.…”

Space that was safe to explore and learn: Stretching the affordances for networked professional learning in creativity for educators

“…We applied the CEF to organise the teacher PD experience, which builds on extensive research from multiple disciplines across the past decade (R. C. Anderson, 2018;R. C. Anderson, Haney, et al, 2020;R.…”

Positive Creativity Is Principled Creativity

“…Structuring creative uncertainties for young people by providing openings and support for students to engage in creative learning activities can go a long way in supporting students' personal and collective agency for creative action. Research on students' resilience in other academic domains, for instance, indicates that anxiety is one of the greatest barriers [40]. Teachers' modeling, messaging, and structuring of teaching and learning can open up creative learning opportunities that shape students' agentic beliefs, which ultimately lead to creative action.…”

“…Principled creative planning can also anticipate and help teachers navigate the risk of students or themselves being limited by counter-productive creativity myths (e.g., "creative experiences should only be used in the arts") and paradigms (e.g., "only highly gifted students can be creative"). A principled approach to creative learning recognizes that students and teachers, themselves, might hold internally conflicting beliefs about creativity, such as whether creative abilities are fixed or can develop with effort [17,40,41]. Without principled planning, teachers may inadvertently pass on problematic implicit theories [42] about creative ability to students with messaging that seems supportive but can actually suppress creative expression, such as "It's okay if you're struggling, not everyone can solve math problems creatively."…”